Process of extracting rosin, turpentine, and oils.



JOHN E. TEEPLE, OF MONTGLAIR, NEW JERSEY.

rnoonss or EXTRACTING ROSIIN, TURPENTINE, AND OILS.

No Drawing.

' To all whom it may concern from lightwood, pine slabs,

Be it known that I, JOHN E. TEEPLE, a citizen of the United. States, residing at Montclair, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of Extracting Rosin, Turpentine, and Oils, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to processes of extracting rosin, turpentine and oils; and it comprises a process of extracting rosin, turpentine, oils, etc., from resinous wood such as lightwood, stumps, pine slabs, etc., wherein such wood is heated and treated for a time in simultaneous contact with water and with spirits of turpentine, both the water and the spirits of turpentine being at their joint boiling point (the boiling point of the mixture) and such heating being conducted without substantial escape of vapors and the contact being either with condensing liquids or with a substantial mass of each liquid; the extracted matters are removed together with water and solvent; and the wood is steamed to recover adhering solvent; all as more fully hereinafter described and as claimed.

In the extraction of rosin and turpentine sawdust, etc., the choice of a solvent is a matter of considerable importance. Generally, gasolene or other petroleum distillates of like character are used but their employment suffers several disadvantages. Most of the gasolene now obtainable carries considerable amounts of high boiling petroleum oils. In view of the high price of gasolene, the tendency of the producers is to send out high boiling oils containing just enough low boiling oil to give a low flash point. The use of low boiling oils, or of oils having a low flash point, in extracting rosin and turpentine, greatly increases the fire risk and adds to the expense of the operation on account of the lost solvent; this loss frequently amounting to 20 or 25 gallons of solvent for every cord of wood extracted. The amount of any very volatile solvent which will be lost in subsequent operations will depend on the temperature of the cooling water available and in the south it is sometimes diflicult to obtain cool condensingwater. Further the use of these indefinite mixtures of high and low boiling oils adds quite materially to the expense and labor of purification of the products obtained.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J an. 1, 1918.

Application filed January 12, 1914. Serial No. 811,626.

The best solvents for the resins and oils of resinous wood are the spirts of turpentine and oils of the wood itself. In the operation they add nothing which is of a foreign nature. Many attempts have been made to utilize this fact hitherto but they have not been satisfactory practically or financially for several reasons. One is that in extracting under ordinary conditions the loss of turpentine or oils is so great as to make the process prohibitive, and another is that repeated use of the turpentine as asolvent at or near its normal boiling point, and frequently under pressure, converts or polymerizes portions of the turpentine into and particularly if long temperature as 158C. tends to darken and injure the rosin. V

I have found, however, that if I perform the extraction in a certain way, I can make a material economyyand can, in particular, reduce the loss of spirits of turpentine to such an extent that it can be successfully used as a solvent for this purpose, thereby gaining all the advantages of its. use as a solvent, and obviating the necessity of introducing any foreign material whatever into the process. I have found that by using water in connection with spiritsof turpentine to form a compound bath wherein the boiling point of the solvent mixed or in contact with the water is reduced below 100 .C., I can secure efficient penetration of the the wood with a small amount solvent into of solvent and efiicient extraction of the resins and oils from the wood without in anyway damaging either the solvent or boiling points.v These boiling liquids may be used as a bath or body of substantial volume in contact with the wood to be extracted. It is better however to space away the bath or body of the two solvents from the wood and allow mixed vapors therefrom, which are naturally at the boiling point, to condense on the wood; in other words, the wood in lieu of being in contact with a large body of the compound bath is in contact with many small droplets of water and of spirits of turpentine both at the joint boiling temperature.

An advantage of the present process is that where the wood is treated with a boiling mixture of water and spirits of turpentine there is a differential penetration of the two liquids into the woody tissue.

By examining resinous woods closely it will be observed that there are certain layers that are poorer in resin than others and that there are some layers of the wood that contain very little resin. On treating pine wood with the boiling mixture described it is found that the water tends to penetrate preferentially these layers or tissues poor in resin, while the turpentine penetrates more particularly the layers or portions rich in resin. This means in the first place an economy in turpentine, giving a better extraction with a relatively small amount of turpentine than where the whole body of the wood is permeated with spirits of turpentine, and in the second place less spirits of turpentine is left in the wood to be regained by a subsequent steaming. In the third place resinous wood contains considerable quantities of extractive materials which are soluble in water, some which are partially soluble in other solvents and which in ordinarypractice contaminate the rosin or make it more diflicult to purify. In my process these extractives preferentially dissolve in the water and leave the extracted rosin in a much purer condition. The use of the described method therefore produces a great advantage in the operation. Substantially, instead of extracting all of the wood I am extracting mainly those portions of the wood rich in turpentine and rosin; and in so extracting I secure a purer product.

In practice I may take the wood which, if not in the form of sawdust should be hogged and shredded or otherwise comminuted, and place it together with a body of water and spirits of turpentine in any suitable container which is capable of being closed to prevent the escape of vapors and which is provided with a reflux condenser or a condensing surface to condense and return vapors and bring condensate into contact with the body of wood. The body of wood may be in direct contact with the composite bath but is more advantageously out of direct contact therewith but exposed to vapors usual ways.

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therefrom. The hot vapors of both water and solvent condensing on the wood expose it to the simultaneous action of both liquids.

The relative amounts of the water and or the turpentine may be as desired since any substantial quantity of water in the presence of the turpentine will keep the boiling point of the mixture, according to familiar laws, at a low point; in this case a point below 100 C. when working at atmospheric pressures. Equal quantities of water and turpentine give good results. A mixture of this kind at this boiling point is nevertheless very mobile and penetrative, the turpentine entering the wood freely. The wood contains both rosin and turpentine butnot in ratios which make the mlxture freely flowing. By the use of added turpentine however the mixture of rosin and turpentine, both that naturally existing and that added, which is formed in the wood is freely flowing and can be readily extracted. In the op-- eration there is present an amount of turpentine greater than that'naturally present in the wood; but not so great as in other processes where turpentine alone is used.

I treat the wood with the compound bath at a boiling heat, or with the vapors of the bath, advantageously preventing any escape of vapors during the period of heating.

,After the wood has been treated with the tinued and the solution containing the rosin may be drawn ofi', or it may be systematically or intermittently drawn off during the heating. The rosin solution separated from the aqueous liquid may be distilled in any of the ways usual in treating gum turpentine or solutions of resin to obtain spirits of turpentine and rosin. The process may be continued or repeated until the extraction is deemed sufficient. The residual wood in the container still holds considerable volatile turpentine, and is therefore given a steam distillation to remove this solvent.

Heating of the bath in the process of treating the wood may be done in any of the Live steam may be admitted to the bath, or coil or jacket steam may be used, or both live steam and confined steam. With a long continued heating and the use of injected low temperature exhaust steam, of course the water condensed in the bath from the steam must be taken into consideration in calculating the amount of water in the bath. The whole or nearly the whole of the water required may be supplied by the live or exhaust steam used in heating; that is a bath of turpentine or solvent alone may be used in starting and heated by injected steam. The condensation of the steam will give the desired composite bath.

The body of wood may also be treated by a mixture of steam and turpentine vapor produced in a separate vessel or vessels instead of in a separate part of the same vessel. As before the vapors penetrate and condense in the wood and on the condensing surface, giving both liquids at the common boiling point, and a bath of rosin-charged solvent and Water, both at the boiling point, accumulates. This bath may be in contact with the Wood or may be in the container below the body of wood. It may of course be removed as fast as formed. In the operation of course if spirits of turpentine are used, the oils and turpentine naturally present in the wood are added to and removed with the spirits of turpentine used as a solvent. After beginning the operation the oils and spirits of turpentine used ultimately all come fromthe wood to be ex tracted.

What I claim is 1. In the extraction of rosin and turpentine from coniferous wood the process which comprises simultaneously treating such Wood in a comminuted state with water and spirits of turpentine at their joint boiling point till the rosin, turpentine and oils are dissolved and extracted by such spirits of turpentine, the amount of spirits of turpentine present in such operation being greater than the amount normallly present in such wood.

2. In the extraction of rosin and turpentine from coniferous wood the process which comprises simultaneously treating such wood in a comminuted state with water and spirits of turpentine at their joint" boiling point till the rosin, turpentine and oils are dissolved and extracted by such spirits of turpentine, the amount of spirits of turpentine present in such operation being greater than the amount normally present in such wood, and then recovering the remaining spirits of turpentine from the wood.

3. In the extraction of rosin and turpentine from coniferous w ood the process which comprises heating such wood at a temperatureibelow 100 C. in the presence of water vapor and vapors of spirits of turpentine till the rosin and oils are dissolved and extracted by the turpentine, the amount of such turpentine present being greater than that naturally present in the wood.

4. In the extraction of rosin and turpentine from coniferous wood the process which comprises heating such wood in the presence of water vapor and vapors of spirits of turpentine at the temperature of a boiling mixture of turpentine and water till the rosin and oils are extracted, the amount of spirits of turpentine present being greater than that naturally present in the wood, and then recovering the remaining spirits of turpentine from the wood.

5. In the extraction of rosin and turpentine from coniferous wood the process which comprises contacting the wood with Water and spirits of turpentine at their joint boiling point, the amount of turpentine present being greater than that present normally in the wood, and continuing the heating without permitting any substantial escape of vapor until the rosin has been extracted.

6. In the extracting of valuable products from coniferous Wood the process that comprises heating a bath of turpentine and water to the boiling point, causing the mixed vapors to pass through, the wood to be extracted, condensing the vapors in such manner as to expose the wood to the simultaneous action of both at their boiling point till rosin and oils are sufliciently extracted, removing the water and solution and recovering the turpentine.

7. In the extraction of valuable products from coniferous wood the process which comprises passing steam through a bath of turpentine, causing the mixed vapors to pass through the Wood, condensing the vapors and passing the condensate back through the wood till resin and oils are sufficiently extracted, removing the water and solution and recovering the turpentine.

In testimony whereof, I afiix my signature in the presence of two subscribing Wit nesses.

JOHN E. TEEPLE. Witnesses:

THOMAS Ln CLEAR, A. J. MABRATT. 

